1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a roof-side structure of a vehicle, more specifically, to a roof-side structure of a vehicle in which a curtain airbag does not interfere with a roof rail gusset. When a broadside collision is applied to a vehicle, the roof rail gusset remains unbroken and thus the rigidity of a roof center rail is sufficiently reinforced.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, a roof-side structure of a conventional vehicle includes, as shown in FIG. 1A, a roof panel 110 which is engaged with a roof center rail 120 on its bottom surface, a side inner panel 145 and a side outer panel 150. These components are connected to a side of the roof panel 110 and engaged with each other having a center pillar outer reinforcing panel 170 interposed between them. A roof rail gusset 140 which is engaged with the roof center rail 120 at its one end by a first fastening member 103 and engaged with the side inner panel 145 at its other end by a second fastening member 105, and thus reinforces the rigidity of the roof center rail 120.
In this case, a curtain airbag 165 is engaged with the side inner panel 145. Specifically, the curtain airbag 165 is integrally engaged with the side inner panel 145 by a second fastening member 105.
However, according to the conventional roof-side structure of a vehicle, the roof rail gusset 140 should be constituted such that a part indicated as “M” in FIG. 1A is bent to avoid interference with the curtain airbag 165 mounted at the outside of the side inner panel 145. As a consequence, there exists a problem when broadside collision energy is applied to a vehicle body, the roof rail gusset 140 is broken because it does not sufficiently withstand a rotation moment that occurs at the roof center rail 120.
However, when a section of the roof rail gusset 140′ is enlarged as shown in FIG. 1B to ensure the rigidity of the roof rail gusset 140, a problem may exist where the curtain airbag 165 interferes with the roof rail gusset 140′.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.